In Search of Shamanic Wisdom in Peru

Light of the Andes

In Search of Shamanic Wisdom in Peru

J. E. Williams

ISBN 9-781617-203749

5.5 X 8.5 inches

200 pages with photographs>

Irie Books 2012

In 2008, the author of The Andean Codex, Dr. J.E. Williams, went back to Peru and returned to give us an unforgettable story of the sacred way of the Q'ero. This new book takes us to the highest mountains and deep into the labyrinth of the heartland of the gods themselves.

As he is learning the beautiful, inexorable value system that goes back to a time before the Incas, Williams discovers that nothing is given to those who take it for granted.

Beyond the physical plane, he is taught by his mentor, Sebastian, to be prepared to meet the spirit deity of that most sacred of all Andean mountains, Apu Ausangate. But Sebastian cannot promise deliverance. He is there only as a guide, not a guarantor.

Dr. Williams, known as Santiago in Peru, has lived and traveled in the Andes for more than forty years. He has dedicated the last sixteen years in search of the secret of the Andes. He believes the Andean principle of Ayni is a secret so simple, and yet unbelievably compelling, that it possesses the key to sustainable living. Ayni is to ethical living on earth as evolution is to biology – a golden compass that always points true.

Light of the Andes reveals the true secret of the Andes, Ayni – the sustainability principal – as taught by the last ancestors of the Incas, the Q’ero. To learn directly about Ayni, Sebastian takes Santiago (the author, Dr. J. E. Williams), into the highest mountains, to the abode of the most powerful of Apus, Ausangate – the great teacher, the shaman’s master.

The thin, high mountain air and the mystical landscape foster inner transformation. His accounts of Q'ero prayers and practices, beliefs and teaching, provide insight into a timeless way of knowledge. As he ascends to the roof of the world, Santiago weaves the secret of the Andes into the archetypal personal spiritual pilgrimage, an authentic journey of the heart, and returns with a message of how to heal ourselves and the planet.